30 prisoners escaped after they convinced wardens they were about to have an orgy

An inmate of the Women's Prison of Brasilia during preparations for the third annual beauty pageant titled Miss Penitentiary Reuters

Nearly 30 prisoners from a Brazilian prison escaped after they convinced wardens they were about to engage in a sex orgy.

A bag of lingerie and dominatrix police uniforms were found by police, which are believed to have been worn by the women prisoners before they made their bid for freedom.

Three women – one of them said to be the girlfriend of one of the prisoners who fled – visited the prison at 3am on Thursday and convinced the wardens to let them in to "chat and drink", said police.

After accompanying the women to the staff sleeping quarters, the prison guards were reportedly drugged with spiked whisky and handcuffed, before unlocking all the prison cells.

Police chief Angelina de Andrades Ferreira told a news conference: "The plan was to seduce them. They served them cheap whisky with some substance to knock them out, then unlocked the central gate which accesses the internal cells.

"Whoever wanted to escape left by the front door.

"From the moment they drank the whisky the agents don't remember a thing. One was found dizzy, trying to wake up. Another slept for the whole afternoon and couldn't even be questioned."

The inmates took three shotguns, two 38 calibre revolvers and ammunition, she said.

Ferreira said the escape was hatched by Bruno Amorim, an inmate's boyfriend. The female prisoner was serving time for attempted murder, robbery and firearms possession.

She said: "Everything indicated that he planned and executed everything, with the help of his girlfriend."

Police found three wardens naked and handcuffed inside the Nova Mutum public jail, near Cuiaba, central Brazil.

Photos of one the naked wardens, said to have been taken by the police officers who found him, have been shared several thousand times on social network sites.

Ferreira said the three prison officers were arrested and will be charged with "facilitating a jailbreak" and "culpable embezzlement" because of the weapons theft.